25 July 2008

The Dark Knight (2008)

Man this movie came in hyped for me. All week long people have been asking me what I thought of it. I had to meekly reply, "I haven't watched it (yet)!" My geek cred was in serious dispute. People everywhere loved this thing and I was hoping to be swept away by Christopher Nolan's vision.

Then again, seeing as I didn't enjoy Batman Begins that much, I had to be skeptical. Keeping my expectations in check, I finally got to watch it tonight. What do I think? Well, it's certainly got a ton of good things going for it. The plot was complex and yet tied together well. The Joker kept me on the edge of my seat and he struck just the perfect anarchy reigns tone. Overall it's a semi-must see and definitely one of the finer comic book films.

Of course, there were also excruciating horrible lines and moments. None worse than the little boy at the end screaming "Batman!" Seriously, if you've seen this movie already, wasn't that incredibly jarring? We walked out of the theatre making fun of this little boy's voice and Batman's guttural mumble. Let me expand on that. Do you think anyone would take Batman seriously if he talked through clenched teeth all the time and pitched his voice so damn low for no apparent reason?

I really want to give this thing an A just because they really did craft an intriguing tale and I can see that they tried to put some intelligence and heart into the film. However, it was just a bit too long, a tad cheesy, and the hilarious voices just kick it down a notch. Sorry.